Driver Blamed in Crash Fatal to 3 SDSU Rowers

A state investigation has blamed the teen-age driver for the van accident that killed three San Diego State University athletes and injured 10 others in Merced County in May.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Bob Arnold said Tuesday that liability for the accident rests on the shoulders of Joseph Farrage, 19, who was driving the van “at speeds at a minimum of 75 m.p.h.” The van was bringing a group of San Diego State rowers, along with one from the University of San Diego, back from a rowing club competition in Sacramento.

Arnold said that the “excess speed,” which some witnesses estimated to be as high as 85 m.p.h., contributed to the blowout of a rear tire on the van. After the blowout, Farrage lost control of the vehicle and it crashed, Arnold said.

Arnold said that he had not read the entire text of the 94-page CHP investigation, which has not yet been made public, “but the bottom line is that speed was the cause of the accident.”

William Hunter, Merced County district attorney, said Tuesday that he has yet to receive a copy of the CHP report and will make no decision on whether to file criminal charges until he has studied the document.

Farrage was cleared of earlier suspicions that he had been drinking beer and might have been intoxicated at the time of the crash, which occurred on an isolated stretch of Interstate 5 near its junction with California 152 in the San Joaquin Valley. Tests made after the May 11 accident showed no trace of alcohol in Farrage’s bloodstream, although several beer cans were found in the wreckage.

Walter Lack, attorney for Southwest Leasing and Rental Inc., which leased the van to the SDSU group, said that 21-year-old Christopher J. Jicha, a volunteer coach, leased the vehicle and listed Mark Starkey of San Diego as the driver. Jicha, of La Jolla, had dealt with the Mission Valley car rental agency previously and had proven to be “a responsible party,” Lack said.

Lack said he had heard “from at least five attorneys representing the different accident victims” and expected that the release of the CHP report will spark some lawsuits.

Starkey, 23, was among those injured in the accident. Farrage has undergone seven skin grafts for burns from the accident and is still hospitalized, his father said.

Farrage’s attorney, Lawrence Sperber, said he could not comment for his client until he has studied the CHP report.

Killed in the accident were Derek Guelker, 18, of Orange; Mark Skinner, 19, of San Diego, and James O’Hara, 20, of Englewood, Colo. All were San Diego State students.